Culture in American education

Culture in American education

ely to the total volume for st of the reports themselves. It I not be in book form. The cont( journal type. The length, not 1 :reased by discussions w...

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ely to the total volume for st of the reports themselves. It I not be in book form. The cont( journal type. The length, not 1 :reased by discussions which arc aments were of interest at the the reader's knowledge. And why this should be in book fo was conducted in 1962 and diq suffice. Walter B. Barbe The University of Pittsburgh

ew: Culture in American Education, by Ruth Landes. John Wiley & Sons, 1965 (330 pp.) fis book, by a renowned anthropologist, describes describ an e: teacher-education program that combined anthropology anth m in order to solve the problems of assimilating children subcultures into American public education. Ruth Landes , he clash of cukures in the schools, how teachers react re; to cu ces and basic concepts of culture and teaching methods. m e goes on to describe the courses offered to tead teachers in a ttal program at the Claremont Graduate School. tEducatiol is of learning are discussed within a framework of o human including cultural and racial diversities. To this thi reader, the ~Um mJl~ difseemed to be designed to sensitize teachers to individual i ferences~ beyond those usually recognized, i.e., physical, mental, and aware of the imemotional. ml. Additionally, the participants were made awa e of communicating feelings and attitudes. One message is portance cultures represented t throughout the book: a knowledge of the cultur repeated by pupils ils is essential to teaching them. Social dal work work, as an adjunct to the school program, i s also discussed. ades judges social workers more kindly than teach teachers. For some Dr. Landes reasons (she lists several) she ae views social workers as having more empathy and understanding of children from different cultures. One can be critical of her failure to recognize the different roles of teachers and social workers. Teachers are required to be product-oriented to a much greater extent than any¢ other group of social scientists. It is the confrontation of society's demand aand for the teacher to teach in the face of a variety of cultural valuess that leads to today's dilemma in public education. This book presents the major challenge facing public education today. It describes one attackk on the enormous problem of bringing 86

many students from subcultures neglected. It is heartening to ] s, have joined educators in mc Thomas M. Stephens The Ohio Department o[ Education ation for Cultural Deprivatior~

, and Robert Hess. New York: 9 pp.) the sudden surge of literature urauy ucpnvcu, comes mc [lllllCUlt difficult ~and i l l ( 1 re..~puil~ll31! responsible task of l intcgrating information in such a way as to establish csts an onze and eva escription of cultural deprivation and to categorize ues to bc utilized through thc social scicnces for amelioratin an ng effects of cultural deprivation. Compensatory. Educatio l Deprivation, a paperback summary of a 5-day research of some of thc most notable persons in the fields of educ~ ogy and sociology, sets itself such a task. Le results of the conference - - rcportcd in a succinct succ 40-~ ed by 12 pages of reference notes and 1 12 pag es of sel cd bibliography - - arc refreshingly reflective in the t] descri present position of understanding the global "cause-and-eJ "cau cs of the culturally dcprivcd. Rathcr than attem Lpt to pt ng of the enmeshcd fabric from which emerge the culturally deprived,d, the conference participants chose to deal with the problem in the pers[ pcrspective of a wide-angle view of social structur :ructure to set forth terse reocommendations of physical, educational and social sod," needs, providing for education a possiblc roadmap for the vehicles vehicle of remedial and preventive techniques. Forr the many school psychologists and teachers who lack the primer course in one of our most permeating social and an, educational problems, is, cultural deprivation, this brief publication pro~ ~rovides a profitable and painless initiation. The professional who desires lcsires to kccp on the growing cdgc of research on cultural deprivation ion will find the selected, current annotated bibliography provides a tailored-to-your-intcrcstsopen-endedness spanning these categories: home nc environment and socialclass,language, cognition and learning, intelli gcncc and aptitude, personalityand motivation, school achievement, and Lnd school programs and personnel. "A--

Russell A. Working The Ohio Department of Education 87

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